Sunday Open Thread [5.5.13]

Filed in Open Thread by on May 5, 2013

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Are you doing anything to celebrate? Patricia Talorico in the NJ has a roundup of the best places in DE for tacos today. Did she miss any of your favorite spots?

There is also a good article in the NJ re: the Fisker meltdown. And I’ll take the obligatory note of the hypocrisy by the GOP on this thing — handing over taxpayer monies to businesses (especially dirty energy businesses) is just fine, even though they hardly need the help. And they don’t seem to mind handing over money to the local banks and casinos and other local ventures — but I imagine that these ventures are also writing them campaign checks. Fisker was always something of a risk — and frankly, I think that the conversation ought to be whether or not taxpayers ought to be in the venture capital or business support business. The free market certainly isn’t served by the government handing over funds to start up OR to support the balance sheets of established businesses. I was a supporter of taking this risk, but I’m more than a little disturbed that we’re willing to rush in to support businesses with little to no of the accountability that we keep puffing our chests out over schools and teachers. As it happens, the state as a functioning asset with great jobs already that they were trying to throw under the bus — the Wilmington Port. How is it that we can be so gung ho over a Fisker deal and working to actually dump an asset that is already performing?

Still, the Fisker story isn’t quite over yet. They raised a bit more than $1B in venture capital and it looks like they added $100M in new funding last September. Who knows where Fiskar goes from here, but I wouldn’t quite give up the ghost on something that attracted more private venture capital than either the US or Delaware contributed. Making cars at Boxwood may be done, but Fiskar is still worth watching.

And WTF is up with Tom Gordon’s CAO?

Grimaldi, who is County Executive Tom Gordon’s chief administrative officer, got in a shoving match during a Delaware Police Athletic League meeting in late 2011 or early 2012, witnesses said. And he was charged with offensive touching after a 2010 altercation that Grimaldi said was his reaction to an attack, court records show.

Having a government gig apparently means never having to be accountable, I guess.

What interests you today?

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"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." -Shirley Chisholm

Comments (10)

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  1. fightingbluehen says:

    Benghazi whistleblowers are getting ready to testify. Not to worry though. Axelrod and the rest of smear team six are probably already gathered to find some dirt on these turds in the punch bowl.

    People need to realize that in this country some people are beyond reproach, above the law. And one of those people is Hillary Clinton.
    What difference does it make. Right, Hillary.

  2. kavips says:

    What? Someone out there still cares about Benghazi? Listen knuckleheads. Four people died in armed conflict in Benghazi… 26 innocent people died in Newtown Connecticut, 20 of which were in first grade. Get your stupid priorities straight, then stick you head on a public forum. 🙂

  3. fightingbluehen says:

    Yeah, I forgot that was the narrative. “Benghazi happened a long time ago”……Jay Carney.

    I hate to say it, but eight months wasn’t that long ago, and I guess we will see who cares on Wednesday .

  4. Roland D. Lebay says:

    FBH–

    You and your fellow crazies continue to miss the point re: Benghazi. Keep crying about it. No one outside of the echo chamber is listening.

  5. fightingbluehen says:

    Echo chamber? Really? Take a look around you m8.

  6. kavips says:

    I looked and no one was talking about Benghazi. My mother in law is worried about a wedding, My father about his spouses health. Everyone in Safeway looked like they were worried about prices… The checkout girl didn’t even know what I was talking about. There is nothing on WDEL about Benghazi. There is nothing in the News Journal. Just checked all five news networks, again nothing on their lists…

    Where do you still get that anyone even cares about Benghazi? We have a Sequestering goin’ on. We have an economy that is booming thanks to the cataclysmic whooping Obama and the Dem’s put on the Republicans.

    All Benghazi questions got answered long, long, ago… No one cares. If anyone does care it is because they are too sore of a loser to function in normal society… Let’s put it in perspective… What Pawlenty said in his first campaign debate has more relevance than what happened in some outpost in Libya…

    Now if you really want to get riled up about something, write your elected officials to ban all guns. That, at least, will be useful as opposed to discussing Benghazi. Again.

  7. So. Grimaldi had already had at least two altercations BEFORE he became NCC CAO? (No wonder Setting was on his speed dial.) Gordon not only was aware of them, but apparently broke up one of them.

    Yet, from among all the options, Gordon saw this guy with no government experience as the best person to be the County’s Chief Administrative Officer.

    What’s going on? Is Grimaldi dating Gordon’s daughter or something?

    Nancy, can you shed any light on this?

  8. cassandra_m says:

    Nancy has written a laugh-a-minute, GRIMALDI–NCCo FREEDOM FIGHTER! post that Grimaldi has posted up on his Facebook page. Pitiful and hilarious.

  9. xyz says:

    What’s going on, you ask?

    One party rule.

    Raises for the mayor’s cronies, thugs hiring thugs in county government, “green energy” money circling around the bowl, “crony capitalism” DELDOT style… the list goes on…

    Get used to it, NCCo – as long as this kind of behaviour is not punished at the ballot box, it will continue.

  10. Charlotte says:

    Wow! What did you expect.
    Stop worrying about the national isssues so much and pay attention
    to what is happening in Delaware.
    A lot of payoffs the past 5 months… with your taxes…